The director of Kate Winslet and Idris Elba's new movie recounts the grueling shoot at 11,000 feet — and how the crew almost revolted in the snow

Kate Winslet and director Hany Abu-Assad making "The Mountain Between Us."

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Kimberley French

When Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad was
handed the script for "The Mountain Between Us" three years ago,
he knew he wanted to shoot it at a real location.

In an era where practically anything can be created with the most
realistic detail in a soundstage, Abu-Assad felt if he was going
to put the audience in a harrowing situation like surviving an
airplane crash, he would have to also put his cast and crew in
that same kind of setting.

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That meant shooting for a month on a mountain at an elevation of
11,000 feet.

Based on the 2011 book by Charles Martin, "The Mountain Between
Us" (which opened Friday), was a script that had a few false
starts before ending up with Abu-Assad. There was the time
Michael Fassbender and Margot Robbie were attached, then Charlie
Hunnam and Rosamund Pike. When Abu-Assad came around, Jessica
Chastain was circling. But it's easy to understand why stars
might have been somewhat hesitant to go forward with the movie:
It's a love story set on a mountain after the two leads survive a
plane crash.

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Kate Winslet and Idris Elba in "The Mountain Between Us."

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20th Century Fox

In the story, Ben and Alex
are strangers stranded at the Salt Lake City airport as a major
storm grounds all flights. As both desperately need to get back
to their homes for important events, Alex comes up with the idea
of hiring a pilot with a small plane to fly them back home. Ben
tags along. But over the snowy mountains of Utah, the pilot
suffers a heart attack, leading to a dramatic crash landing. Ben,
Alex, and the pilot's dog all survive, but with little food they
have to figure out quickly how to get rescued. Eventually, Ben
and Alex's journey to be rescued leads to a romance.

It's not the kind of movie that's an easy sell for a date night.

But Abu-Assad felt with the harrowing journey Ben and Alex have
to endure to survive, a powerful love story could also be told.

"The idea was great between a survival tale and it turning out to
be a love story, and what's the difference between love and
survival? Is there any difference between the two?" Abu-Assad
said to Business Insider. "We fall in love, I think, because we
want to survive. We want to bring kids to the world. So the theme
is very interesting. There aren't many movies being done with the
combination of survival and love."

Soon after signing on, Abu-Assad got a new version of the script
following a rewrite by Chris Weitz, which he said was the best
version he'd seen yet. With a locked script, Abu-Assad got it to
Idris Elba, who was interested but knew the movie needed a strong
female costar. Then at the 2015 British Film Academy Awards, Elba
and Kate Winslet connected and the two decided they were up for
the challenge of making "The Mountain Between Us."

But even Abu-Assad admits, at times during shooting he wished he
had done it all on a soundstage.

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Idris Elba (L) fainted from working in the high altitude.

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Kimberley French

Following a month of pre-production in late
2016, production shot for a month on the Purcell Mountains in
British Columbia (which doubled for the Utah mountain Ben and
Alex are stuck on in the movie). Each day started with a
helicopter trip up the mountain from the base camp. And not just
the cast and crew, but all the equipment had to be flown up each
day. Also, the helicopter would only take everyone up if if was a
clear day and not a cloud in sight. As Abu-Assad learned the hard
way one morning.

"I always flew up first with my DP, first AD, line producer, and
location manager," Abu-Assad said. "We go up and then suddenly we
were rounding the mountain and there was this huge cloud on the
other side of it. So the pilot had to turn around very fast -
because if you go into that cloud you can't see anything, you'd
be flying blind - and we went back down the mountain very fast.
It was a free fall. It was like a bungee jump. That was the worst
day for me."

Shooting days only lasted six hours because everyone had to get
off the mountain by the time the sun went down. And the altitude
was a constant battle. Abu-Assad said numerous people fainted,
including Elba.

And the elements didn't just take its toll on the cast and crew,
but the equipment as well. With the cold at times getting to
around 40 below, all the cameras had to run 24 hours a day
because they learned if they turned them off, they would never
start back up.

Abu-Assad tried to keep everyone in high spirits through the
shoot, but there were bad days.

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The only way up the mountain was by helicopter. The cast, crew, and all the equipment had to be brought up that way every day. But only if the weather was clear was everyone allowed up the mountain.

source

Kimberley French

The movie, shot by cinematographer Mandy
Walker ("Australia," "Hidden Figures"), has gorgeous wide shots
of miles of untouched snow with huge mountain ranges for as far
as the eye can see. To pull off the look of the characters being
in the middle of nowhere, Abu-Assad said the production had to
walk for a good mile, lugging all the equipment (which included
cranes and dolly tracks), in deep snow. Often up hills. In one
instance, the crew almost revolted.

"One day we had walked and set up the shot and were ready, but
then I was like 'This is not the right angle, we have to move the
camera another half mile,' because I wanted to get the mountains
in the background," he said. "You should have seen my crew
shouting at me. 'You can't do this!' I felt really guilty. The
line producer was yelling at me, 'Hany, you can't do this!' and I
said, 'We started already, let's continue.' We all had to work
together to make it possible and they did it."

So despite some days wishing he had a warm coffee in his hands
inside a comfortable studio set, Abu-Assad looks back and
believes the experience on the mountain was needed to make the
movie.

"To be honest, this is what drives me to make movies," Abu-Assad
said. "I want to have a challenge. And an honest picture. Because
if you do it in a studio with a green screen, you won't be making
honest decisions about your shots, lens, lighting. But when you
are on location, every decision is an honest decision because you
are hungry, you are cold, you are all in the same situation. The
actors didn't need to pretend. We couldn't get food up there.
Everyone had energy bars to chew on."

But Abu-Assad isn't crazy. Yes, he'd be willing to make a movie
in these conditions again, just not the next one.

"The next movie is on a beach," he said with a laugh. "Sun and
beer and beautiful girls."